By Cassandra Morgan and Lachlan Abbott
Men in white vans are behind what police are treating as a spate of child kidnapping attempts across Melbourne, sparking increased security around schools amid fears of copycat incidents.
Police Acting Superintendent Paul Cripps said police had boosted school patrols and warned the Education Department about safety risks after four recent suspected abduction attempts, which were not thought to be linked but all involved white vans.
The van police believe was involved in a kidnapping attempt in Blackburn on November 18.
“It’s a scary situation for any child to be involved in, and it’s scary for the parents,” Cripps said on Thursday. “We’re not sure why it’s concentrated, and we’ve had so many reports in such a short period of time.”
The first incident was in Melbourne’s east on November 18, when a “dirty-looking” man driving a white van approached an 11-year-old boy walking home from school along Halley Street, Blackburn, about 3.45pm.
Police were told the man used an “inviting tone” to tell the boy his mother had asked him to take her son home. The boy declined the offer and the man drove away.
A digital image of a man police would like to speak to.Credit: Victoria Police
The boy described the man to police, who generated a digital image of him.
Detective Acting Sergeant Joanne Morrison later said it was a timely reminder for parents and carers to have conversations with their children about stranger danger.
“The child was determined that he had his key, that he knew the plan was his mother had told him to walk home from school, and that’s exactly what he did,” Morrison said.
“He wasn’t tricked by the male, which should be commended.”
The boy’s mother, who did not wish to be named, said her son came home and locked all their doors before he told his parents about the incident. He was distressed and frightened, she said.
“I hate to think what would happen if he’d gone with him. I think it would be a very different story,” she said at a press conference in late November.
Nine days after the Blackburn incident, a man driving a white van approached a 14-year-old girl in Melbourne’s north-west about 5.45pm on November 27. The girl was walking along Spring Street, Tullamarine, when the man slowed and asked her to get in the van. She ran to a nearby park.
Back in Melbourne’s east, a 15-year-old girl was walking along Saxon Street, Doncaster, about 9.40am on Monday this week when she, too, was approached by a man driving a white van. The man asked her to get in his vehicle but the teenager ran to nearby shops.
A day later, a man in a white van in Melbourne’s outer east approached a 10-year-old boy about 8.30am in Landscape Drive, Boronia. The boy walked away from him.
“There is the potential that there are copycat attacks,” Cripps said at a press conference on Thursday. “They seem to be happening near schools. That’s why we’ve increased our patrols around schools.”
Police believed the incidents were unrelated because the vans appeared to be different and the victims gave different descriptions of the men who approached them.
“At this stage, we are looking for four different suspects,” Cripps said.
He said all four incidents involved men approaching in a friendly manner and in effect asking if they could give the children a lift home.
Cripps did not rule out the possibility that the incidents had an innocent explanation, but said detectives assumed they were all abduction attempts.
“Until we speak to suspects and find out what their intent is, we always treat these [as having] malicious intent,” he said.
“Any enticing of children into vehicles by unknown people is very, very concerning. It’s one of our highest priorities. We’ve got lots of experienced detectives working on this to try and establish who these people are and the reasons for this happening.”
Cripps’ message for parents was, “Be alert, but not alarmed.”
Katrina Lines, a psychologist and chief executive of support service Act for Kids, said the involvement of white vans in all four incidents would stick in families’ minds.
Theincidents served as a reminder to parents and carers that they should have open conversations with their children about personal safety – not just about stranger danger, given children were at most risk of harm from people they knew, she said.
“If you’re calm and clear and have conversations with kids all the time about those things, about their interpersonal safety, then they know what to do in those situations,” Lines said.
“[Those] young people were obviously very clear about how to keep themselves safe, and did a great job and told someone afterwards.”
Lines said abductions were still rare and encouraged parents to not appear fearful when they talk to their children about the recent incidents.
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